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Learn the right lessons, on both sides

I agree with your assessment, to a point.

Republicans sat out this election - for good reason, and I agree with many of your reasons, but I have two others, which for me (and all others I know) were paramount.

Limp wristed prosecution of the war, and a complete defiance of the wishes of the American public on Immigration. (65-80% of Americans want a stop to Illegal immigration).

Republicans can wimper about Corruption and wasteful spending, but Corruption and wasteful spending have been around since long before this current crop of Congressmen and women. What changed this time was Immigration, and they will have missed the point, if they think differently.

I voted for my Governor, and my local officials, but I withheld my votes for Senators and Congressmen. Many others simply did not go to the polls at all. This was foretold back at the time of the Immigration marches, and it has come to pass - as promised.

Republican Representatives would do well to learn that they can not act with impunity towards their base, and get away with it. We are not sheep, and if you go against our interests - by legalizing millions of illegal aliens, then you will reap the rewards of No second chances.

Dems would do well to recall the second half of this plan, which is to elect far more Conservative Republicans in 2008. We sat out this one, specifically to unseat the Incumbent RINOs.

We will come back in 08, stronger than ever. Watch and see.

Galen is right

What is appearing today throughout TH are all the explanations and laments about what happened, but few are actually addressing the truth. Galen has summed up much of the ‘how and why’ in this article. Santorum’s is a good case in point. He ran a clean campaign. He’s not involved in scandal. He represents most of what conservatives hold dear; but he lost.

An easier way to put it

They didn't win, we lost.

---- OR ----

They didn't beat us, we beat ourselves.

Luckily

Bush still has appointing power for the judicial, although waek, but will not yiled us another Ruth Ginsburg.


Look for the scamnesty to pass....


and look at the bright side. In two years, after the impeachment of both Bush and Cheney, the public will have tired of President Pelosi LOL

Recovery

America did not vote left last night. In fact, when all the numbers are counted, I will bet that the Dem numbers barely rose. It was conservatives, fed up with a Repub leadership and corruption that didn't listen. Poor prosection of the war, and spend, spend spend. Then they wouldn't listen. So conservatives said, the hell with them, they are just the same, we might as well have the real thing. We need to find real conservative leadership. We are the party of ideas, conservatives never run out of ideas, if the leadership is too lazy to listen, well, they gotta go, or get pushed.

Democrats will reap what they've sown

Is it really that bad?

1. Wave after wave of investigations and impeachment hearings.
What Republican president since Nixon hasn't faced it at one time or another?

2. An emboldened al qaeda -
That's propaganda. So what if they got their wish. Didn't they know they should be careful what they wish for? They just might get it. They probably thought ours was a parliamentary system, and so Bush would go if Dems won. How stupid was that?

3. Possible defunding of our efforts in Iraq.
With the exception of protecting the Kurds, that's fine with a lot of people. Let the Arabs kill themselves all they please. Sunni and Shia - let the games begin. (Talk about getting what you wished for. Once the Shia are in full control after a US exit, the Sunnis will regret the day they planted that first roadside bomb!)

4. A more emboldened North Korea and Iran due to Bush's weakened stature.
More emboldened than when? The Iranians were emboldened the day Bush decided to let the EU handle things. North Korea has been emboldened since 1994, when Clinton gave them everything they wanted. George Bush talked a good game for a while, but he had no stomach for confrontation with either nation, after Iraq.

5. Say good-bye permanent tax cuts.
What tax cut was ever permanent? Even Ronald Reagan raised our taxes after cutting them.

6. Say hello to increased regulation of big business, stifling economic growth.
What growth? Your bank account? The economy isn't growing. Only Wall Street is.

7. Amnesty for illegal immigrants
We were going to get that anyway. Have you heard of McCain-Kennedy? Some pundits are saying that J.D. Hayworth's defeat in Arizona is proof that Americans just didn't like the GOP's attitude on II. They think the GOP came on too strong against illegals and we the people weren't comfortable with that. It's a laugh riot. The House Republicans' answer to illegal immigration was to authorize a wall that they wouldn't fund. What good was it? For that matter, what good were they? They certainly weren't fiscally frugal.

8. Say good-bye to constructionist judges on the Supreme Court if we lose the senate
With less than a filibuster-proof majority, Bush has no chance of getting meaningful SC judges appointed. The gang of 14 has been broken up. It wasn't going to be resurrected. Anyway, the last two years of a president's term are the worst ones to nominate judges for any court. The other party puts a hold on them in the hope they'll get their own guy into the White House in the next election.

Maybe the base did send a message. Get used to it. It looks like a lot of conservatives really did stay home and sulk, as they said they would. The real question is: will Democrats misinterpret their victory? Most of their gains came in races decided by one to two percentage points, one quarter of the margin Republican winners had in 1994.

As for the Democrats, they have shown the GOP the power of the minority to obstruct vital legislation and nominations whenever it chooses. Here's hoping the GOP was paying attention. If not, then someone needs to go to C-SPAN and look at some old tapes of Senate sessions for a refresher. You (and they) may be in for a surprise.
Maybe the GOP needed some shock treatment. They were not doing the job we sent them to do, anyway. If not for the Texas redistricting, they would have lost the House in the last election. They were due for a defeat.

Dems love Al Qaeda?

Anyone who thinks a Democratic congress will somehow embolden Al Qaeda or make it easier for them to attack us is an idiot. Democrats love their children too, and want to protect them from harm just as much as the next guy.
Moreover, the Dems have made it a point that they will institute the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, something Bush has categorically failed to do for years now. I feel safer already.

So seriously, quit the hysterics.

No win

Why was immigration a big deal this year, as opposed to any other in the decades since Mexico has seen us as a safety valve for its unwanted citizens?

Why were there stories in the MSM about senior citizens having to choose between food and medicine?


Face it, there was no way to do anything about these issues that wasn't either going to anger the base or anger centrist voters. If the Republicans went for the centrists, like they did on the prescription drugs issue, and Bush went on immigration, the base gets mad. If the GOP wanted to please the base, like on the prosecution of the war, it gives something for moderates to be disgusted with.

Thaaaat's why these issues were brought up. But here's the good news:

Let's do some math:

1 bully pulpit on Pennsylvania Avenue, for whom it is not only his duty to set the Congressional agenda, even the most hateful MSM member has to cover it, and cannot ignore him.

plus

26-was it? "conservative Democrats" (shee-yeah, right) who got elected by very narrow margins.

plus

Thousands of howling liberals looking for any old excuse to rally around sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.

What does that equal, if you think strategically?

I leave it up to my fellow evil minds. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

President Bush still does not get it

His comments this afternoon show his lack of understanding of the issues. It was not the Democrats that ran such a good campaign. It was the Republicans killing their base with liberal agendas and disregard for responsibility. Secret prisons! Amnesty programs! Pork and more Pork!
I do not look forward to the Democrats in charge but the Republicans have shown little for 12 years of representing the people.

Kraut

You're right, a lot of lefties don't get the nature of the Islamic fundamentalist threat. But also a lot of them do. To name one: Nancy Pelosi. That b!tch is meeeean ;-)

Super90

Nancy Pelosi. That b!tch is meeeean ;-)

Only if you get between her and her makeup.

The word is heirs

"inheritors"

Yes, heirs.

Active Duty Major

Seriously man. The only thing that will change with Democrats in charge is that the majority of posts on Townhall will come from liberals.

Galen is Right

It had very little to do with the war/Iraq. It had everything to do w/the President disrespecting/ignoring his once solid, ultra loyal base. And as KM said at top of this comments page, his lack of concern/ indifference regarding illegal immigration is what caused too many to Stay at Home - http://streetlevel.townhall.com
That one issue, above all others, took the largest toll.

Too many RINOs..

The majority of voters voted for conservatives - candidates running as conservative Democrats due to the Republican party's unwillingness to rid itself of RINOs (such as gov Bill Owens & Sen John McCain). What will be interesting in the next 2 years is to see if those conservative Democrats can live up to their campaign promises or if they're oppressed by the Marxists of the Democrat party as was Zell Miller.

Hopefully Bush is as adept at using the veto as was Clinton. Otherwise the upper middle class will shrink dramatically as it will be milked to support the parasitic socialist pigs while elitists like Kennedy & Kerry protect their wealth from taxation.

(While "Marx's Socialist Media" played the roll of third man for the Democrat party, the Republican party failed to remain true to it's conservative roots, resulting in conservative voters casting their votes for conservative Democrats.)

laughingatyou

You may be wrong about lydia.

"the difference between us lydia i seek the truth you run from it."

However you've got me down pat. I've been blaming democrats, the media, and everyone else for the Republican loss. We only have ourselves to blame. I think you agree.

you're wrong about '08

Laughingatyou - 2008 will be a lock.....

Only in your dreams. The Dems didn't win, the Repubs lost. BIG difference. Foolish people just don't get it. The vast majority of voters are either center or to the right of center. That's a fact.

For over a year many were telling their elected officials that this was going to happen, but they did not listen. But the message was clear - the voters hold the power - NOT political parties.

And yes, the Repubs will come back even stronger in '08, '10 and 2012. The voting majority has known for at least two years that they were being left behind and set out to do someting about it. THAT is what you saw in this election, nothing else.

It definitely was about the Iraq war.

A few exit polls don't make it true. It was only "1" of many. Like spending, increaseing government control over our daily lives, forgetting the voters that brought them into power in the first place and never listening to them and for many - illegal immigration was the number 1 issue. And the GOP Senate failed them.

The message was clear from people all over the country - their elected officials "never listened to their concerns" when they communicated with them. All they ever received was a polite brush off.

Well, the voters returned the favor. BIG time.

Well

I don't think the situation is as bad as you it’s, though. Many of the new Dem reps who were elected are of a conservative bent, i.e. pro-Second Amendment, pro-life.

Further, on several of the issues I don't think policy will really change. Immigration: the Reps were wrong on this issue anyway, with their bent toward amnesty. They only finally passed a bill when they saw the ship going down, and even then they never passed the enabling legislation to fund it.

Minimum wage: I didn't see the Reps fighting that. SCOTUS: who knows if any on the bench now are even going to retire, and if they do it's still Bush nominating the successor. Maybe he'll find his cojones (which are probably hidden with the fabled veto pen -- he'd better find both).

WOT: If we get hit again after the Dems are in office for a while, they have a MAJOR problem on their hands.

This election was the Republicans' to lose, and lose it they did. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It's been a long time coming, and it's because they lost their principles, and became indistinguishable from Democrats.

They key here is: what lessons have been learned moving forward. If the Reps put up another bunch of RINOs in 2008, they're going to sink further into obscurity, taking the Presidency with them.

NAU

want to see what they (Dems & Repubs) have in store for us?

go to: http://www.augustreview.com/

and to: http://www.nascocorridor.com/
Notice the ports on Mexico's west coast. They're being built by China.

HereMeNow

Thanks for those sites!


You can see by the shipping routes why they desperately need the borders to be open. You can also see why Kansas City got more Homeland Security Funding--they will be the shipping hub through our country of goods made by the slaves in China.

LaughingAtYOUnow ; )

Did you miss the invasion fleet's bombardment and the landing barges on 9-11?

Don't laugh in that position.
Your spincter will twitch and pinch your head off!

HearMeNow

OK
You kept me out of mischief for awhile, now it's my turn.
Button to start the movie is at the end of the text preview on the left side.

http://www.AmericanCongressForTruth.org

MyOpine

I know. After 9/11, like many Americans I wanted to know.....WHY. What I've learned is that it has nothing to do with our government though the media et al tries to make it so.

It is 'US'. Our society, our culture and our individual freedoms - that they hate. And they think they know better than us how to run our lives. And EVERY American needs to understand that.

There are so many threats against our way of life and people had better wake up if we are to survive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13D4JwpJUY

http://www.anti-cair-net.org/

The new Minnesota Congressman
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=25321